Manuel Mandujano: John Heartfield Post

John Heartfield proved to be a very interesting person to read about. Heartfield had to go through a lot at a very early age. After his parents were accused of blasphemy, Heartfield’s family was separated in hopes that they would not be imprisoned. It was after this incident that Heartfield discovered his passion and skill for art. Heartfield was a courageous man who used his art to show his protest towards the government, and more specifically, Hitler and the Nazi regime. Heartfield was also a huge part of the DADA movement, which began in Switzerland in 1916. Both the DADA movement and most of Heartfield’s artwork was directed towards protesting World War 1. Most of Heartfield’s artwork was satirical in nature, ultimately expressing disgust for Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. This means that most of Heartfield’s artwork would, at first glance, appear to be very odd or different than anything anyone has ever seen before. However, after one examines one of Heartfield’s pieces of art, one can begin to see the hidden message it portrays. For example, the picture below is a piece created by Heartfield on December 26, 1935. The caption underneath it reads: “O joyful, o blessed, miracle-bringing time”. This is a picture of angels wearing gas masks and having darkened wings while singing Christmas carols. What Heartfield is trying to express is how the war and Hitler has destroyed Christmas’ theme of peace and hope. Heartfield is the type of artist that does what he has to do to get his point across, and this led him to create pieces of him attempting to cut off Nazi-supporters heads to the very one presented below.